Fibonacci, What a Notion!

Fibonacci, What a Notion! was commissioned by the Children’s Festival Chorus, under the direction of Christine Jordanoff. Written for two part treble children’s chorus and the jazz guitar quintet Duquesne University’s Catch 22, it is also adaptable for piano accompaniment. The theme explores the expression of the Fibonacci number series, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, etc. in nature and is also expressed in the music in both the pitches of the scale and the meters.

Fibonacci, what a notion of the motion of the world!
One, one, two, three, five, and eight,
Add each one, accumulate the number of the Golden Section.
How to measure such perfection?
One, one, two, three, five and eight,
Fibonacci, what a notion of the motion of the world!

It shapes our fingers and our face,
the rings of Saturn hung in space,
the petals of a rose,
the wings of a moth, the leaves of a tree,
the hives of a bee, the shells from the sea.
Balance, beauty, harmony, harmony,
Fibonacci, what a notion of the motion of the world!